Syria Feature: Qatar & Turkey Hold Up Arms Until Insurgents Unite (Sengupta)

Stockpiles of arms, including anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles, are being held in Turkey for use by rebels in Syria's civil war, but their distribution is being held up because of disunity and feuding between the different groups of fighters....

In high-level discussions, Qatari and Turkish suppliers told opposition representatives that heavy weapons would not be made available until the various factions agreed to form a coherent command structure.

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Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Historic Aleppo Burns

See also US War on Terror Feature: The Death of a Guantanamo Bay Detainee
Saudi Arabia Feature: The Trial of the Political Dissidents
Saturday's Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Political Drift in New York, Military Confrontation in Aleppo

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1925 GMT: Yemen. The World Food Programme has said that almost 50% of Yemenis go hungry amid the world's third-highest rate of child malnutrition.

"Five million people, or 22 percent of the population, can't feed themselves or buy enough to feed themselves....These are mostly landless laborers, so they don't grow their own food, and with high food prices they can't buy it either," WFP spokesman Barry Came said. "In addition, there is another five million who are being really hard hit by high food prices and on the edge of being food insecure. So 10 million people in this country go to bed hungry every night."

The number of Yemenis receiving daily WFP food rations has risen from 1.2 million in January to more than 3.8 million, but poor infrastructure and fear of kidnappings have complicated the logistics of providing food aid.

Thirteen percent of Yemeni children are now acutely malnourished.

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Libya, Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Protesters Take Over Militia Bases in Benghazi

Police arrest protester during Friday demonstration in the Bahraini capital Manama --- 29 people were detained (Photo: Mahmood Alshaikh)

See also Syria Video Documentary: "The Heart of the Battle"
Bahrain Letter: Detained Zainab Alkhawaja Accepts Freedom Award "For The People Who Fight Against All Odds"
Friday's Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Assad Proclaims, "We Will Defeat Armed Groups", as His Planes Kill 100s of Civilians

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1940 GMT: Syria. Residents and activists report fighting and snipers throughout Aleppo today.

In Suleiman al-Halabi, one of Aleppo's main streets, the army prevented residents from venturing into the area amid steady gunfire in the third day of fighting.

One resident said, "Almost 80 percent of the people in Suleiman al-Halabi left their homes after rebels entered the area."

Locals warned of snipers in the adjacent neighborhood of Midan, held by the regime, as streets were empty, shops were locked up, and several buildings and apartments were destroyed.

"The battle is now between snipers," Sheikh Walid, the head of an insurgent brigade in the southern Amiriya district said, as only few hundred meters separated the rival forces.

In Maysar, nine people were reportedly killed, including five members of the same family. Residents said insurgents reinforcements were pouring into the eastern district of Sakhur and Shaar.

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Syria Feature: Saudi Arabia v. Qatar in the Arming of the Insurgents (Abouzeid)

Disorder and distrust plague two of the rebels’ international patrons: Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The two Gulf powerhouses are no longer on the same page when it comes to determining who among the plethora of mushrooming Syrian rebel groups should be armed. The rift surfaced in August, with the alleged Saudi and Qatari representatives in charge of funneling free weaponry to the rebels clearly backing different factions among the groups — including various shades of secular and Islamist militias — under the broad umbrella that is the Free Syrian Army (FSA).

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Iran Analysis: Tehran Hurts Itself With Muddled Messages on Syria

General Jafari & President AhmadinejadRevolutionary Guards Commander Jafari's message on Sunday, backed by this chiding of Ankara, appears to be, "We are in Syria. Deal with it." Perhaps someone in Tehran planned it as part of a carrot-and-stick strategy, with the commander offering the tough posture while the President was saying, "Look, you really want us in talks."

More likely, however, is that there is no strategist --- not Jafari, not Ahmadinejad, not the Foreign Ministry, not the Supreme Leader --- thinking through the statements and Iran's actions. And that failure is likely to set Iran back in its effort to retain some influence in the Syrian situation.

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Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Deaths and Executions on Both Sides

Claimed footage of an attack on a building of the security forces in Zabadani in Syria

See also Syria Video Feature: Does the Free Syrian Army Represent The People?
Monday's Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Deaths and Executions on Both Sides

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2010 GMT: Syria. According to the Local Coordination Committees, 115 people have been killed by regime forces today:

40 martyrs were reported in Aleppo; 25 in Damascus and its suburbs; 23 Hama including martyrs from Kafarzeta and Halfaya; 11 in Deir Ezzor, among them 4 in the shelling of Shehail and 4 in Bokmal; 6 in Daraa; 5 in Idlib; 2 in Lattakia;2 in Banyas 1 in Homs.

See our note on the numbers release by the LCCs.

As you can see, the deaths in Aleppo today have been very high, with Damascus and Hama (particularly Kafer Zita, as we noted earlier) accounting for most of the rest of the fatalities today.

We saw a continuation of a pattern that has become familiar - the regime is using longer-range artillery, and air strikes, to inflict much of this damage, both to buildings and to lives. However, after several weeks of intensification, there are no signs that either the Free Syrian Army, nor the peaceful protesters, show any sign of giving up their resistance to President Bashar al Assad.

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The Latest from Iran (7 September): Challenges on the International Front

2154 GMT: Conspiracy Theory of the Day. Hassan Firuzabadi, the Chief of the Armed Forces, has revealed, “The creation of sects in the Islamic world and the extremism of Al-Qaeda and jihadis is the plan of the CIA, Mossad, and MI6 spy organizations, against the Islamic community." He continued:

The CIA and Mossad are the progenitors of Al-Qaeda, the jihadis and state terrorism in the region…They plan through the use of sects, which are apparently religious, but in fact terrorist, to initiate a targeted war between Sunni and Shi’a, despite the constant and serious efforts of some Islamic countries for the creation of unity and comprehensive alignment between Muslims.

Firouzabadi set out a case study for his findings, “The appearance of the new problem of terrorism in the form of Al-Qaeda and jihadis in confrontation with the people and government of Syria is the long-term plan of the arrogant and colonialist regimes against the Islamic world”.

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Turkey Interview: Prime Minister Erdoğan on Syria, His Political Future, and Imprisoned Journalists

In this two-part video from an interview with Christiane Amanpour of CNN, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is forthright about Syria, declaring that President Assad is "politically a deceased person" and claiming that the US elections are holding Washington back from necessary intervention.

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Syria, Bahrain (and Beyond) Live Coverage: The "New Normal" --- Death From the Air

People in the Sekkari section of Aleppo in Syria flee shelling on Wednesday

See also Yemen Feature: 29 Dead in 8 Days as US Drone Attacks Escalate
Syria 1st-Hand: The Making of an Insurgent --- The Story of Abboud Barri
Wednesday's Bahrain Live Coverage: Shutting Away Political Prisoners, Shutting Away the News
Wednesday's Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: The Free Syrian Army Tries to Re-Structure and Assert Control

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2055 GMT: Syria. Claimed footage of citizen journalist Mohamed Zakoor being struck and killed as he shot this video in Aleppo:

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Syria Audio Feature: The Escalating Issues of Refugees and a Transitional Government --- James Miller with Monocle 24

Al Jazeera English on the "ghost town" of Salma in northwest Syria

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EA's James Miller spoke with Monocle 24's The Daily last night about latest developments in the Syrian crisis, notably the reaction to French President Francois Hollande's declaration that he would recognise a transitional government and the growing pressure of Syrian refugees in Turkey.

To get to the discussion, go to The Daily's homepage and click on the programme for 28/8. The conversation begins at the 43:55 mark.